Quote:
Originally Posted by highthief
So are you suggesting taking away states' rights to make certian decisions? As I understand the US system, that would be as well received as banning guns, free speech and Baby Jesus.
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Pretty much. There are too many ideological differences between the various parts of the country to make a national mandate in support of gay marriage work at this point in time. We have to start with this at the state level, just like regular marriage, and let states decide for themselves in regard to this issue. Slowly but surely it can be done! It hurts to see stuff like Prop 8 up there on the ballot, but just because it's on the ballot doesn't mean that a) it will pass, and b) it's constitutional.
Admittedly, I live in a weird state--Oregon says that marriage is between a man and a woman (Measure 36
) but has established domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. Oddly, heterosexual couples do not have domestic partnership rights--they are ONLY for same-sex couples (I'd been hoping the legislation would turn out to be something like the French
Pacte civil de solidarité).
Personally, I think the issue we should be clarifying is whether marriage is a RELIGIOUS institution or a CIVIL institution. If it's the latter (and it should be, separation of church and state, etc), then the government--be it county, state, or federal--has no right to dictate who can and can't marry. It should be equivalent to issuing a business license. But that's how it
should be, not how it is. We have a long ways to go. There are a lot of bigots in the United States.